Arena Profile: Rep. Glenn Thompson

A life-long resident of Howard Township, Centre County, Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson was first elected to represent Pennsylvania’s Fifth District in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 4, 2008 and sworn in to his second term on January 5, 2011.

Prior to being elected to Pennsylvania’s most rural district, Congressman Thompson spent 28 years as therapist, rehabilitation services manager and a licensed Nursing Home Administrator. Through his professional experiences, GT has touched the lives of more than 10,000 individuals facing life altering conditions. As a result, GT has learned firsthand the importance of access to quality healthcare in rural communities and has become a strong advocate for increased access, affordability, quality of care, and patient choice. He currently is Co-Chairman of the Congressional Healthcare Caucus.

A 30-year veteran of the Juniata Valley Boy Scout Council, GT was the Council's President during 2007-2009. He has enriched the lives of young men throughout Central Pennsylvania. He is a former member of the Bald Eagle Area School Board and is past vice-chair of the Private Industry Council of the Central Corridor. Because of these experiences, in 2008 GT was appointed to the House Committee on Education & Workforce.

A community leader and a volunteer firefighter, with three decades of service, GT is acutely aware of the challenges facing rural Pennsylvania remains eager to assist in the revitalization of our rural communities throughout the Fifth District.

As a member of the House Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Education & Workforce Committees, GT will be in a unique position to bring his expertise and knowledge to bear on the issues facing rural businesses, communities, and families, in order to improve the lives of the citizens of the Fifth District. In addition, during the 112th Congress, GT will serve as Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy & Forestry.

Congressman Thompson is a proud graduate of Penn State and Temple Universities, where he earned a B.S. and a Masters in Education, respectively. He and his wife Penny Ammerman Thompson have three adult sons, Parker, Logan, and Kale. The Thompsons reside in Howard Township with their dog Truman.

Rep. Glenn Thompson's Recent Discussions

Open Mike - June 18-19, 2011

(Interview with POLITICO's Aleesa Mann)

It’s not so much the start of school that needs to be the target date, it’s when the states budgets will be adopted. They are the vehicle from which school funding flows so that school districts set their budgets. We have started significant work in this area, but if you’re talking about being ready for the return of school in September 2011, that’s very unrealistic.

It is extremely important that we do this, and frankly, from my perspective, on the House side we’re in the middle of that. One the of the most important steps we took was the bill where we identified the programs that were duplicative or had a track record of not being effective, around 40 programs, that we’ve eliminated. To me, that was the first round as we move forward here to get this done. I haven’t found anyone yet in Washington who has not been of the opinion that it’s time to reauthorize this program and make significant changes to it.

I think there’s a lot that we could do to improve this significantly. One of my priorities has to do with the title one funding…it’s a system today that is skewed tremendously. In fact, it’s skewed in such a way so that it is biased against schools that have a high percentage of students that meet those poverty standards for title one funding. The discrepancy can be high as schools that get $800 per student to those that get $8,000 per students …this is a bias that cuts across all areas, urban and rural. I’m working on a piece of legislation that will specifically address that in terms of restoring equality to this funding formula.

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The Arena is a cross-party, cross-discipline forum for intelligent and lively conversation about political and policy issues. Contributors have been selected by POLITICO staff and editors. David Mark, Arena's moderator, is a Senior Editor at POLITICO. Each morning, POLITICO sends a question based on that day's news to all contributors.